Under A Black Sun Trilogy

Home > Science > Under A Black Sun Trilogy > Page 27
Under A Black Sun Trilogy Page 27

by Kevin J. Anderson


  overhead, emitting short blasts of sound that the musicians

  incorporated as a counterpoint to their piece.

  Jaina listened, enjoying the exotic tune. She had never heard music

  like this in her life, and she knew it was an experience she wouldn't

  forget. She winked at Zekk. "This is almost better than dry clothes,"

  she said.

  Zekk flashed a grin back at her. "Not quite," he said. "But it's

  interesting."

  When it was finally time to go, Lando and the two young Jedi took their

  leave of the forlorn Biths sitting in their run-down huts, hiding out

  in the middle of the swamp.

  "You'll have an audience soon enough, Figrin," Lando said softly.

  "Once we take care of Black Sun, you can come back and play to your

  heart's content. I'll even double your wages for the first week."

  Figrin raised a big-knuckled hand. "Just make sure you have an open

  sabace table for me, Calrissian." The band kept playing as their

  unexpected visitors turned to leave.

  "What, you want to lose all your wages again?" Lando said over his

  shoulder.

  "I always win 'em back," Figrin answered, waving goodbye.

  The band's melody turned sour and skeptical at these words, and Jaina

  sensed that Figrin's companions didn't have much confidence in their

  leader's gambling prowess.

  Tenel Ka's normally alert mind went numb with shock as Jacen plummeted

  out of reach. She hung precariously, still dangling in the Wooklee's

  strong grasp. She could have fallen at any instant. But for a full

  hundred heartbeats she could only stare down into the sea of clouds

  that had swallowed her friend Jacen.

  Jacen ...

  At his side she had fought Dark Jedi, vicious beasts, bounty hunters,

  assassins, and misguided patriots. But never, even in her wildest

  nightmares, had she imagined that he could be taken from her like

  this-lost in an instant to gravity and some nebulous foe against whom

  she'd never even had the opportunity to fight.

  The sharp pain in her arm did not come close to matching the wrenching

  pain in her heart, but it did bring her back to reality. Lowie groaned

  in weariness and despair. Tenel Ka's booted feet flailed in the air.

  The only thing that kept her from sharing Jacen's fate was Lowbacca's

  strong grip on her one good arm.

  But that couldn't last forever.

  or a split second, she considered letting go, plunging after Jacen into

  the clouds. At least that would save Lowbacca, and she wouldn't have

  to live with the guilt of knowing this had all indirectly been her

  fault.

  A long time ago, if she hadn't been trying so hard to impress Jacen

  when they'd first built their lightsabers, her pride would not have led

  her to fight him with a substandard weapon. . . would not have led to

  the accident in which her arm had been lost-an arm that would have been

  there to save Jacen from his fall, had it not been for her own

  foolishness.

  She should have been there to catch him. Tenel Ka had failed Jacen.

  Why had she simply not told him how much his friendship meant to her?

  Tenel Ka's sweaty hand slipped in Lowie's grasp. With a harsh bark of

  warning, Lowbacca extended his razor-sharp Wookiee claws and dug them

  deep into her arm. He would not let her fall.

  She winced, distracted from her torturous thoughts, and welcomed the

  pain that brought her mind back to sharp reality. The warrior girl

  looked up into Lowie's golden eyes and saw there a reflection of her

  own anguish ... and something more: determination.

  Deten,nination to stay alive. Determination not to lose another

  friend. Determination to warn Jaina, Zekk, and Lando that their lives

  were in danger too. Determination to find whoever had done this and

  bring them to justice.

  Blood trickled from the deep wounds where Lowie's talons dug fiercely

  into her skin. Through the Force she felt his resolve flow into her,

  like the warm blood that poured down her arm. The wind made her

  red-gold braids whip wildly around her and caught at the droplets of

  blood, spattering them across her face.

  The braids of a warrior. The blood of a princess.

  Tenel Ka gritted her teeth. She would not fall, and she would not

  allow Jacen's murderers to go free. Her eyes still locked with

  Lowbacca's, she used the Force to steady herself. "I'm ready."

  The Wookiee, who still had one arm wrapped around the sturdy antenna

  that protruded from the bottom of the city's structure, pulled himself

  upward with that arm until he was able to wrap his strong legs around a

  crossbar. With both hands freed, he pulled her up by one arm and

  grasped her around the waist with the other. Then, shaking from the

  strain, he curled upward toward the antenna, as if sitting up and

  lifting weights simultaneously, until Tenel Ka could grasp the center

  bar of the antenna herself.

  When he withdrew his claws from her arm the gush of blood made the

  antenna slippery and harder to hold on to, though Tenel Ka hardly

  noticed. She quickly hooked a leg over the crossbar and helped

  Lowbacca pull himself upright. For several long moments they clung to

  the antenna, shuddering from their efforts.

  Finally Tenel Ka drew a deep breath. "Thank you, Lowbacca, my

  friend.

  Let us continue."

  Lowie roared and pointed up toward the chute through which they had

  fallen. Tenel Ka looked and saw with despair that the hatch had closed

  behind them! "You are correct, my friend. We seem to be stranded."

  A split second later the hatch mysteriously slid open of its own

  accord. Lowie gave a triumphant bellow. They would still need to find

  a way to climb inside the sheer tube, but the first hurdle had been

  overcome. As the two young Jedi struggled to a standing position on

  the antenna crossbar, a familiar silver ovoid hovered down through the

  open disposal chute.

  "Oh, thank the Maker! Master Lowbacca, Mistress Tenel Ka!

  You're alive! Do make haste-I'm not certain how long I can keep this

  access hatch open."

  Tenel Ka fumbled with the pouch clipped at her waist and removed her

  grappling hook and fibercord.

  "Oh, excellent idea!" Em Teedee said. "There is a ledge exactly three

  point seven meters above you where an air vent feeds into this disposal

  tube." Tenel Ka felt a strange light-headed sensation as she attempted

  to swing the grappling hook for her throw. Her fingers were bloody and

  the hook slipped from her grasp as she made the toss.

  Lowbacca's hand shot out and snatched the cord before the hook could

  fall. Tenel Ka saw this as if from a great distance. The Wookiee then

  secured one arm around her waist and the antenna while he used his

  other hand to draw in the grappling hook, swing, and make the throw.

  The hook caught and held firm.

  "Excellent shot, Master Lowbacca!" Em Teedee said. "I say, wherever

  could Master Jacen be?"

  An angry Wookiee bellow exploded beside Tenel Ka's ear, but it didn't

  matter. A curtain of soft darkness descended upon her mind and she

  remembered nothin
g more.

  Anja had everything back under control. She had reminded herself of

  her priorities and her goals, of who she was and who her enemies

  were.

  She felt refreshed, invigorated, ready to take on anyone or anything.

  She was once again convinced that she had not befriended Jacen, Jaina,

  and their associates. She was merely using them to get to Han Solo.

  Well, perhaps she had slipped a bit and begun to think that their silly

  belief in the Force might actually give them some advantage, some power

  that she didn't possess. But the sentiment had been short-lived.

  Everything seemed so much clearer to her now. She was completely

  self-sufficient. Anja Gallandro needed nothing and no one except Anja

  Gallandro. She had her wits, her intuition, her reflexes. And that

  made her every bit as good as a Jedi Knight.

  As these comforting thoughts filled her mind, a heavy knock sounded on

  the door to her quarters. She hurriedly swept all of her private

  belongings off the sleeping pad and back into the satchel from which

  they had come hours earlier, including the empty spice vial. She

  stepped to the refresher unit and stuffed the satchel into a corner

  before answering the knock.

  She waved her hand over the OPEN switch, and the door slid aside with a

  hiss. Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and Em Teedee practically fell into the

  room. Em Teedee's casing had been badly scratched, Tenel Ka's arm

  seeped blood from several deep wounds, and Lowie's ginger fur stuck out

  wildly in all directions.

  Startling as it was to see them in this bedraggled condition, Anja was

  determined not to lose her composure again. She raised her eyebrows

  and tried for some humor. "I see you've come to appreciate my opinion

  of Ugnaughts."

  "You were right not to come with us," Tenel Ka said in a weak voice.

  Her eyelids drooped, and Anja could now see that the Wookiee was

  supporting most of the warrior girl's weight. Blood dripped from Tenel

  Ka's wounds to the floor.

  "It was a trap," Em Teedee cried. "Curse my foolish circuits, I should

  have seen it earlier."

  Lowie growled. "Oh, yes!" Em Teedee translated. "And Mistress Tenel

  Ka requires immediate medical assistance-immediate!"

  "Trap," Tenel Ka echoed. Her face was pale, her breathing ragged.

  Lowie picked up the warrior girl and gently deposited her on the

  sleeping pallet.

  Anja pushed a button on the comm unit beside the door. "Emergency

  medical team to room 0914."

  "Request acknowledged," a droid voice replied. "Estimated arrival: two

  point four minutes."

  Anja nodded and turned back toward the two Jedi. "So where's Jacen?"

  she asked. "Torturing the Ugnaughts by telling them jokes?"

  Lowie leaned back against the wall and crooned a strange note that Anja

  had never before heard from a Wookiee. Tenel Ka did not reply, but

  tears appeared from beneath,her eyelids. Anja guessed that her pain

  must be terrible, because she had never seen the warrior girl betray

  any emotion whatsoever.

  The Wookiee crooning grew louder. The miniaturized translating droid

  spoke in an oddly hushed voice. "If Master Lowbacca were capable of

  making any reply, he would regretfully inform you that Master Jacen

  ...

  is dead." With that, the little droid fell silent and hovered

  fretfully between the Wookiee and the warrior girl, as if trying to

  comfort them.

  Ridiculous! Anja thought. Jacen could not be dead. She had seen him

  only a few hours ago. This had to be somebody's idea of a joke.

  But Lowie's eerie crooning and Tenel Ka's tears convinced her that

  something terrible had indeed occurred-more surely than any words could

  have.

  In subdued tones, the translating droid explained what had taken

  place.

  Anja was not prepared for the storm of conflicting emotions that swept

  through her. Anger, guilt, hopelessness, loss, despair. Jacen had not

  deserved to die. He had befriended Anja, amused her, taught her,

  defended her, learned from her, saved her life. He had been there for

  Anja. That's what friends are for, he had said.

  But she had not been there for him.

  An even worse thought now occur-red to her: she might actually have

  caused Jacen's death ... just as she had always told Czethros she would

  do someday, given the chance. It had been a lie. She hadn't meant

  to.

  Not really.

  But Anja herself had told Czethros of the young Jedi Knights' arrival

  on Cloud City and what they were investigating. Now Lowie and Tenel Ka

  were wounded. And Jacen was dead. If Anja knew Czethrosand she

  thought she did-these events were not unrelated. That meant Czethros

  did have something to do with Cojahn's death and that Anja's friends

  had come too close to finding out about it.

  She had no one to blame but herself. Her chest began heaving, and

  deep, wordless sobs wrenched from her throat.

  She had lied. She had lied to Czethros. She had lied to herself.

  Jacen had been her friend. Why should he be dead now?

  An icy knife of anguish plunged deep into Anja's heart. Hot tears

  spilled down her cheeks. She stumbled backward into the refresher unit

  and shut the door tightly behind her. Racking sobs shook her as she

  scrambled in the corner for what she needed-what she had to have.

  There was no choice.... The spice would help her.

  A minute later, when the emergency medical team arrived at the door to

  her quarters, Anja came out of the refresher unit and let them in. She

  was controlled now, full of energy.

  But nothing, nothing, could dull the pain....

  lacen fell.

  And he kept on falling.

  As he plunged down from Cloud City, the giant hanging metropolis seemed

  to shoot up and away from him like a spacecraft rocketing toward

  orbit.

  In the first several seconds he let out a panicked cry for help. But

  he kept dropping ... dropping, with no bottom in sight. A cold wind

  rushed past his face, roaring in his ears, rippling his clothes, making

  it hard for him even to draw a breath. He quickly realized that

  screaming only wasted his precious energy.

  Jacen concentrated, trying to use what Jedi powers he possessed to help

  him stop his endless fall. He had to think of a way. With the Force

  he could make himself lighter, perhaps slow his descent ... for all the

  good that would do him-it would only prolong the inevitable.

  He felt as if he were floating and envisioned the Force as an invisible

  hand cradling him, lifting him up ... but he knew that was only an

  illusion. No matter how hard he concentrated, how much he tried to use

  his Jedi skills, he could not push himself back up to the now-distant

  Cloud City.

  Worse, Bespin was a gas giant, a huge ball of atmospheric mixes, with

  no true surface, only a superdense liquid core hidden under thousands

  of kilometers of clouds. Jacen would keep falling into denser and

  denser gases, but he would be crushed long before he ever reached the

  central sphere. He would just fall forever into the gas giant,
until

  the pressure squashed him flat.

  The clouds swirled below, streaming in spirals like a whirlpool far,

  far beneath him. With each instant he fell closer and closer to

  oblivion.

  In his mind he tried to call out to his sister Jaina or to Tenel Ka,

  but he couldn't seem to make contact. In any case, there was nothing

  they could do ... at least, not in time.

  He did use his Jedi training to keep himself calm, remembering the

  techniques that Master Skywalker had taught him. Great, he thought

  with a flash of griryi humor, at least I'll die calm.

  But he was not ready to give up yet. He lay back and continued to fall

  and fall and fall, sending out a silent cry for help ... though he

  didn't know where to direct it.

  The wind and gases burned his eyes. He let them drift halfway shut.

  Even so, the sunlight dazzled him, creating tiny rainbows through the

  ice crystals high in Bespin's atmosphere, and the colors of the pink

  and orange airborne algae seemed painfully bright.

  Then, curving out at the edge of his vision, he saw a flicker of dark

  wings swoop through a nst of clouds and streak away. He blinked and

  spun around in the air. The gusting winds caught at his clothes.

 

‹ Prev